7 MEMORY
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. Entering information into a computer by typing letters on a keyboard is much like information entering the
memory system
A) through short-term memory.
B) by encoding it into long-term memory.
C) through the sensory receptors.
D) by retrieving it from short-term memory.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
2. In order to be stored in short-term memory, information must be
A) decoded.
B) retrieved.
C) encoded.
D) consolidated.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
3. The stage theory of memory states that memory is
A) a system based on how deep information is processed.
B) a system of three memory stages.
C) dependent on synaptic facilitation.
D) a system dependent on the developmental level of the individual.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
4. The concept of short-term memory being distinct and separate from long-term memory is an integral part of
A) Bartlett’s reconstructive (schema) theory.
B) Craik and Lockhart’s levels of processing model.
C) Collins and Loftus’ spreading activation model.
D) Atkinson and Shiffrin’s stage theory.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
5. Which of the following is a true statement, according to the stage theory of memory?
A) Information must first be rehearsed, and then it is attended to.
B) Information must first be attended to, and then it is encoded.
C) Information must first be encoded, and then it is sensed.
D) Information must first be attended to, and then it is sensed.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
6. According to the stage theory of memory, information entering the memory system must first enter
A) short-term memory.
B) the sensory register.
C) long-term memory.
D) working memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
7. The concept of the sensory register is an integral part of the
A) spreading activation model of memory.
B) levels of processing model of memory.
C) stage theory of memory.
D) reconstructive memory model.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
8. Imagine that you take a photograph of a room. What is captured in the photograph would be analogous to
A) storage in a sensory register.
B) encoding in short-term memory.
C) encoding in working memory.
D) retrieval from long-term memory.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
9. Which stage of memory has the most time-limited storage capacity?
A) long-term memory
B) short-term memory
C) working memory
D) sensory memory
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
10. If you do not pay attention to information in a sensory register, how long will the information be retained?
A) less than a second for all types of information
B) 15 to 30 seconds for all types of information
C) less than a second for visual information and a few seconds for auditory information
D) 5 seconds for visual information and 15 to 20 seconds for skin information
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235, 236
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
11. An important difference between visual information in the sensory register and auditory information in the
sensory register is that the auditory information
A) has a smaller storage capacity.
B) can be held longer than visual information.
C) cannot be held as long as visual information.
D) is limited to about seven pieces.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235, 236
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
12. In most cases, visual information is retained for about
A) 1 second
B) 2 seconds
C) 4 seconds
D) ¼ of a second
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
13. An “echo” of which type of sensory information is retained in the sensory register for up to four seconds?
A) auditory
B) tactile
C) visual
D) olfactory
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
14. George Sperling flashed three rows each containing four letters on a screen and asked participants to recall the
letters in one of the rows. What were the results of this study?
A) Participants could remember 1 to 2 letters from any row.
B) Participants could remember 3 to 4 letters from any row.
C) Participants could remember the letters from the first row only.
D) Participants could remember to 4 letters from any row if they were told which row to remember within a fraction
of a second after the presentation.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 236
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
15. George Sperling flashed three rows each containing four letters on a screen and asked participants to recall the
letters in one of the rows. What were the conclusions from this study?
A) The sensory register has a capacity of 1 to 2 items.
B) Short term memory has a capacity of 3 to 4 items.
C) Participants can only process a few items in the short time the stimuli were available.
D) Information is lost very quickly from the sensory register.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 236
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
16. Which of the following statements is true of the sensory register?
A) Auditory information fades more quickly than visual information.
B) The sensory register has limited storage capacity.
C) Most of the information in the sensory register is transferred to long-term memory.
D) The sensory register can absorb much more information than can be retained.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 236
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
17. Once we focus on the relevant bits of information in the sensory register, they get transferred to
A) another sensory register.
B) short-term memory.
C) permanent memory.
D) long-term memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 236
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
18. Visual information in the sensory register will be saved if
A) it is rehearsed.
B) you keep your eyes open.
C) you pay attention to it.
D) it is preceded by auditory feedback.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 236
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
19. Information can be “renewed” in short-term memory through the process of
A) masking.
B) chunking.
C) rehearsal.
D) encoding.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 236
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
20. After hearing a telephone number, most people who do not rehearse the number will forget it within
A) a few seconds.
B) 30 seconds or less.
C) 2 to 4 minutes.
D) a few hours.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 236
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
21. When Lloyd and Margaret Peterson (1959) asked participants to remember combinations of three consonants,
they demonstrated which of the following about short-term memory?
A) Rehearsal increases storage capacity.
B) Rehearsal decreases storage capacity.
C) When prevented from rehearsing, people quickly lose information in short-term memory.
D) None o these is true.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 237
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
22. For storage in short-term memory, humans generally transform information into
A) acoustic codes.
B) visual codes.
C) semantic codes.
D) gustatory codes.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
23. Our preference is to store information in short-term memory as
A) tastes.
B) sounds.
C) sights.
D) smells.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
24. Which of the following observations supports the claim that short-term memories are frequently represented as
acoustic codes?
A) If you are trying to retain information in short-term memory, you tend to rehearse it over and over.
B) Most people have better acoustic memory than visual memory.
C) People tend to make acoustic “mistakes” when they encode in short-term memory.
D) People use language to organize information in the brain.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 237
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
25. George Miller’s “magic number” is
A) 7 plus or minus 3
B) 7 plus or minus 2
C) 9 plus or minus 3
D) 9 plus or minus 2
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
26. What is the storage capacity of short-term memory?
A) 30 to 60 seconds
B) 5 to 9 items
C) 1 to 2 hours
D) 7 to 15 items
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
27. Rosa forgot to study for her history test. Right before the test, she quickly looks at the list of 20 dates on which
she will be tested. As the test is handed out, she quickly writes down the dates she is able to remember. How many
dates will Rosa remember?
A) about 7 dates
B) about 12 dates
C) the last 3 dates on the list
D) the first 3 dates on the list
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 237
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
28. Short-term memory also serves as our as
A) sensory memory.
B) working memory.
C) long-term memory.
D) semantic memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 238
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
29. Which of the following is true of short-term memory?
A) It is difficult to search short-term memory for specific memories.
B) Space in short-term memory is taken up by thinking.
C) Information is stored in short-term memory in terms of its meaning.
D) We easily lose information from short-term memory if we do not encode it.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 237, 238
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
30. While talking on the phone, you notice your cat heading for an expensive vase on the end table. You race to
retrieve the cat, and when you return to the phone, you have no idea what you were talking about. Why did you
forget?
A) You experienced proactive interference.
B) When you turned your attention to the cat, the phone conversation was replaced with new information.
C) The phone conversation was a cue-dependent memory.
D) The phone conversation was a mood-congruent memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 239
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
31. What happens when we try to remember something in short-term memory?
A) We examine every item in short-term memory.
B) It usually just “comes to us.”
C) We use cues.
D) This speeds up our memory loss.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 238
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
32. If you organize the number “23571113” as the prime numbers “235-71-113,” you are improving your short-term
memory retention by taking advantage of
A) spreading activation.
B) the serial position effect.
C) chunking.
D) maintenance rehearsal.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 238
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
33. Instead of mentally representing the digits 1298 as “one, two, nine, and eight,” they can be represented as twelve
and ninety-eight. What is this process called?
A) consolidation
B) chunking
C) reconstruction
D) relearning
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 238
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
34. Matthew is shown a list of the 12 cranial nerves. Twenty seconds later, he can list them all and in the correct
order. Matthew most likely
A) rehearsed the list at least six times.
B) related each nerve to something meaningful in his life.
C) is a strong auditory learner.
D) chunked the list into meaningful groups.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 238, 239
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
35. Instead of mentally representing the letters I R S A M A A P A as individual letters, you quickly arrange them as
“IRS,” “AMA,” and “APA.” You have just used
A) elaborative rehearsal.
B) chunking.
C) serial processing.
D) consolidation.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 238, 239
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
36. Of the following, the best way to expand the amount of material one can store in short-term memory is to
A) visualize the spelling of each word.
B) repeat the material over and over.
C) rest momentarily before trying to recall it.
D) organize the material into chunks.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 238, 239
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
37. Imagine that you are playing with your dog. You throw the dog a small red ball. He catches it in his mouth and
dashes to another room where he hides it in his favorite hiding place. When he returns, you tell him, “Bring me the
ball.” He leaves and returns with the ball in his mouth. If you apply this example to the stage theory of memory,
your dog hiding the ball in his favorite place would be analogous to
A) storage in a sensory register.
B) retrieval from short-term memory.
C) encoding in working memory.
D) storage in long-term memory.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 239
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
38. Imagine that you are playing with your dog. You throw the dog a small red ball. He catches it in his mouth and
dashes to another room where he hides it in his favorite hiding place. When he returns, you tell him, “Bring me the
ball.” He leaves and returns with the ball in his mouth. If you apply this example to stage theory of memory, your
dog bringing you the ball from its hiding place would be analogous to
A) retrieval from a sensory register.
B) encoding in long-term memory.
C) encoding in working memory.
D) retrieval from long-term memory.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 239
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
39. When you file your dental insurance correspondence in a folder marked “Financial: Insurance” and then file the
folder alphabetically among hundreds of other folders, you are using a system most analogous to
A) the sensory registers.
B) short-term memory.
C) long-term memory.
D) chunking.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 239
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
40. Most long-term memories are stored as
A) either visual or auditory sensations.
B) auditory codes.
C) visual codes.
D) semantic codes.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 239
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
41. Material is usually stored in long-term memory according to
A) level of rote rehearsal.
B) surface structure.
C) sound.
D) meaning.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 239
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
42. Although controversial, it has been suggested that memories held in long-term memory last
A) for 5 to 10 years.
B) until they are replaced by new memories.
C) for life.
D) for several years.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 239
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
43. What happens when we try to remember something in long-term memory?
A) We examine every item in long-term memory.
B) It usually just “comes to us.”
C) We use cues.
D) This speeds up our memory loss.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 239
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
44. It has been suggested that “forgetting” in long-term memory is largely due to
A) motivated forgetting.
B) retrieval failure.
C) decay.
D) displacement.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
45. Encoding in short-term memory is generally ____________, while encoding in long-term memory is generally
____________.
A) visual; acoustic
B) episodic; procedural
C) acoustic; semantic
D) semantic; episodic
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 239
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
46. In short-term memory, forgetting occurs when information is not ____________; in long-term memory,
forgetting occurs because information cannot be ____________.
A) retrieved; rehearsed
B) rehearsed; retrieved
C) indexed; chunked
D) relevant; retained
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 239, 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
47. Short-term memories are generally processed in the
A) hippocampus.
B) thalamus.
C) frontal lobes.
D) occipital and temporal lobes.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
48. Information in long-term memory is first integrated in the ____________ and then is transferred for permanent
storage.
A) sensory registers
B) thalamus
C) hippocampus
D) frontal lobes
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
49. Memory for skills and other procedures is referred to as ____________ memory.
A) episodic
B) short-term
C) procedural
D) semantic
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
50. When you remember how DNA replicates in the nucleus of a cell, what type of memory is that?
A) episodic
B) short-term
C) procedural
D) semantic
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
51. You accurately remember your first day of kindergarten and can recall what your classroom looked like.
This is an example of
A) procedural memory.
B) schema memory.
C) semantic memory.
D) episodic memory.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
52. The memory of a particular event at a specific time in your life is a(n)
A) semantic memory.
B) episodic memory.
C) procedural memory.
D) reconstructed memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
53. Memory for which of the following is an example of an episodic memory?
A) steps for driving a stick shift
B) events that happened on your first date
C) names of the counties in your state
D) details of your daughter’s face
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
54. Which of the following is the best example of procedural memory?
A) fondly recalling sitting on your grandmother’s lap
B) remembering when the neighbor’s house was on fire
C) remembering how to use a fork and a knife
D) recalling the night your family went to the basement because of a tornado
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
55. When you store learned information from your introductory psychology course, you store the information as
A) episodic memory.
B) semantic memory.
C) procedural memory.
D) reconstructed memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
56. What is the major difference between declarative and procedural memory?
A) Declarative memory involves skill performance while procedural memory involves semantic meaning.
B) Declarative memory involves semantic meaning while procedural memory involves episodic memory.
C) Declarative memory involves memories that are easily described in words while procedural memories are
demonstrated through performance.
D) Declarative memories are demonstrated through performance while procedural memories are expressed in terms
of experiences with time and space.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 240
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
57. Which of the following types of memories are sometimes grouped together as declarative memory?
A) episodic and procedural
B) semantic and procedural
C) episodic and semantic
D) episodic, semantic, and procedural
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 241
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
58. “Forgetting” from long-term memory is MOST likely to involve
A) episodic memories.
B) semantic memories.
C) procedural memories.
D) perceptual memories.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240, 241
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
59. What is the advantage to a high level of organization for memories stored in long-term memory?
A) It makes you less likely to distort memories on recall.
B) It minimizes the possibility of decay.
C) It makes retrieval more efficient.
D) It minimizes the possibility of motivated forgetting.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 241
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
60. Which observation BEST supports the theory that memories in long-term storage are highly organized?
A) When recalling an argument, people tend to recall their interpretation of events rather than the actual statements
made.
B) When recalling childhood events, people tend to forget the painful experiences and remember the pleasant ones.
C) When recalling word lists, subjects tend to group related items even if they were not grouped in the original list.
D) When events are too painful to remember, people tend to repress those memories.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 241
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
1.
61. The spreading activation model of memory assumes that the information in long-term memory is organized
MOST like which of the following?
A) an alphabetized filing system
B) electrons in an atom
C) flakes in a box of cereal
D) a spider’s web
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 242
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
62. According to the spreading activation model, which of the following concepts is LEAST likely to be activated
when you hear the word “stripes”?
A) flag
B) zebra
C) stars
D) cake
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 242
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
63. According to the spreading activation model, which of the following concepts is MOST likely to be activated
when you hear the word “mouse”?
A) wagon
B) cheese
C) bicycle
D) tricycle
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 242
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
64. In the network models of memory, items become closely associated
A) through personal experience with the items.
B) by biological similarities.
C) by their survival value.
D) because they have similar acoustic or visual properties.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 242
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
65. Which of the following lists the three ways of testing of long-term memory retrieval in order from least sensitive
to most sensitive for evaluating memory?
A) recognition, recall, relearning
B) recall, relearning, recognition
C) relearning, recall, recognition
D) recall, recognition, relearning
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 243
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
66. You don’t have an address and you are driving up and down the street trying to remember which house is your
friend’s house. You must rely on
A) recognition.
B) recall.
C) relearning.
D) reconstruction.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 243
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
67. Your geography professor gives you a list of all the states and asks you to fill in their capital cities. What kind of
memory test is this?
A) reconstruction
B) recall
C) relearning
D) recognition
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 243
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
68. Your coworker panics: “I forgot the name of our secretary! I know it’s something like Jane or Janelle, but which
is it!” Your coworker is asking you to do a ____________ task.
A) relearning
B) reconstruction
C) recall
D) recognition
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 243
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
69. Your chemistry teacher gives you a list of 25 elements and asks you to circle the elements that are minerals. You
are completing a
A) relearning task.
B) recall task.
C) reconstruction task.
D) recognition task.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 243
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
70. In a matching test of neurotransmitters and their functions, you must match the list of neurotransmitters (on the
left) to their functions (on the right). You are completing a
A) relearning task.
B) serial position task.
C) recognition task.
D) recall task.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 243
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
71. An essay question is a
A) recall task.
B) reconstruction task.
C) serial position task.
D) recognition task.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 243
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
72. In the relearning method, researchers measure whether an individual
A) learns forgotten material in less time than it took to learn the first time.
B) can select an item previously seen from a list of choices.
C) can recall information without any retrieval cues.
D) experiences proactive interference.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 243
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
73. You cannot remember the history you learned in high school, but in college, you learn the same material in half
the time. How can this be explained?
A) You are using reconstructive memory.
B) You are experiencing “relearning.”
C) You are using recall.
D) You are using recognition memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 243
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
74. Relearning supports the belief that
A) recall tasks are easier than recognition tasks.
B) recognition tasks provide more retrieval cues.
C) memories stored in long-term memory are permanent.
D) the order in which we memorize items is as important as the items on the list.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 243
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
75. If you memorize a list of words in order, you are more likely to remember the words at
A) the beginning of the list.
B) the end of the list.
C) both the beginning and the end of the list.
D) both the beginning and the middle of the list.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 244
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
76. If I give you a list of fifteen things to remember in order, you are MOST likely to forget
A) items 6 through 10.
B) items 1 through 5.
C) items 11 through 15.
D) items 1 through 5 and 11 through 15.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 244
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
77. The serial position effect states that memory for a list of items will be worst for those items at the
A) beginning of the list.
B) end of the list.
C) middle of the list.
D) middle and end of the list.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 244
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
78. In the serial position effect, items at the beginning of a list are recalled because they
A) are still held in short-term memory.
B) were rehearsed and transferred to long-term memory.
C) are still being held in sensory registers.
D) involve recognition, not recall.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 244
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
79. In the serial position effect, items at the end of a list are recalled because they
A) are still held in short-term memory.
B) were rehearsed and transferred to long-term memory.
C) are still being held in sensory registers.
D) involve recognition, not recall.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 244
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
80. When we experience a “tip-of-the-tongue” phenomenon, we generally remember about half the items we are
trying to recall within
A) approximately a minute.
B) an hour or two.
C) six to eight hours.
D) a day or two.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 245
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
81. Ellis cannot remember the name of the manager who interviewed him for a job yesterday. He thinks it starts with
a “G” and sounds something like “Gorgie” or “Gormet.” What is Ellis experiencing?
A) retrograde amnesia
B) the “tip-of-the-tongue” phenomenon
C) the serial position effect
D) motivated forgetting
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 245
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
82. In the “Tip-of-the-Tongue” Phenomenon, we often recall part of the information but have difficulty recalling the
rest. Based on what you know about short-term memory, what might explain this event?
A) Information is usually stored in short-term memory by meaning.
B) There is a short circuit in the associative network.
C) The information that sounds similar to the memory you are trying to access is interfering by occupying space in
your short-term memory.
D) You are experiencing mental decay.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 245
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
83. The levels of processing model suggests that short-term memories are
A) processed in a different brain location than long-term memories are.
B) memories that are processed in a shallow manner.
C) encoded semantically while long-term memories are procedural.
D) episodic memories while long-term memories are procedural memories.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 245
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
84. According to the levels of processing model, when you memorize a word, you will recall it better if you
A) pair it with a rhyming word.
B) spell the word several times.
C) relate the word to an event in your own life.
D) repeat the word over and over.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 246
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
85. In studying psychology, Aaron studies concepts by reading about them in the text, reviewing his notes, writing
practice quizzes and figuring out how the concepts apply to his own life. Aaron is using a strategy called
A) maintenance rehearsal.
B) serial positioning.
C) elaboration.
D) reconstruction.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 246
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
86. The more deeply you think about the meaning of a concept, the easier it will be to retrieve the information. This
strategy best supports
A) the levels of processing theory.
B) synaptic facilitation theory.
C) schema theory.
D) the stage theory of memory.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 246
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
87. According to the levels of processing model, which of the following study strategies would be most effective for
improving your recall?
A) Underline the material to be remembered in both your text and your notebook.
B) Recite the concepts out loud over and over.
C) Relate each item to some personal experience in your life.
D) Think of rhymes for each word or concept.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 246
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
88. Sometimes new information gets stored in long-term memory; sometimes it does not. According to the levels of
processing model, which of the following is the main determinate of whether information enters long-term memory?
A) how long the information is retained in short-term memory
B) how much capacity remains in long-term memory
C) how quickly the information is transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory
D) how well the new information is processed and encoded for memory
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 245
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
89. “Shallow processing” involves
A) the encoding of superficial perceptual information.
B) the encoding of meaning.
C) elaborative learning.
D) the memory strategies of persons with lower intellectual capabilities.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 246
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
90. Contemporary psychologists support the idea that the passage of time can cause us to forget information in
A) the sensory register and long-term memory.
B) the sensory register and short-term memory.
C) short-term memory and long-term memory.
D) long-term memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 248
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
91. Which mechanism of forgetting is most consistent with decay theory?
A) dissolving memory traces
B) interference theory
C) motivated forgetting
D) reconstruction theory
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 248
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
92. ____________ theory states that memory traces fade over time.
A) Reconstruction
B) Motivated forgetting
C) Decay
D) Interference
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 248
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
93. “Unused information simply fades away.” This statement summarizes the
A) interference theory.
B) schema theory.
C) theory of motivated forgetting.
D) decay theory.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 248
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
94. Interference is most likely to occur when the new and old information are
A) the same.
B) similar.
C) moderately different.
D) very different.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 248, 249
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
95. You are trying to remember the Thursday night TV lineup from last season, but you are heaving trouble. Of the
following, which is MOST likely to be interfering with your memory?
A) the movies you saw last year
B) your friends’ phone numbers
C) this season’s Thursday night TV lineup
D) information about how to use a TV
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 248, 249
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
96. You studied Child and Adolescent psychology last semester. This semester, you are studying Developmental
psychology. Compared to friends who only took Child and Adolescent Psychology, you notice you’re forgetting
much of what you learned in Child and Adolescent psychology. What best explains your forgetting?
A) decay theory
B) proactive interference
C) the serial position effect
D) retroactive interference
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 249
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
97. A new cashier tries to learn the names of all her regular customers. At first he does very well, but as the
customers keep rolling in, he finds himself calling new customers by old customers’ names. Why?
A) He is experiencing proactive interference.
B) He is experiencing motivated forgetting.
C) As he reconstructs his memories, distortions occur.
D) He is experiencing retroactive interference.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 250
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
98. Which of the following is an example of proactive interference?
A) You read your watch, someone interrupts you and asks for directions, and now you can’t remember what time it
is.
B) The court requires that you testify against your brother, but you love your brother and suddenly can’t remember
the details of the incident.
C) You cannot remember the new phone number that the phone company assigned you last week.
D) You keep calling your new boyfriend your old boyfriend’s name.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 249
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
99. Which of the following is an example of retroactive interference?
A) You read your watch, someone interrupts you and asks for directions, and now you can’t remember what time it
is.
B) The court requires that you testify against your brother, but you love your brother and suddenly can’t remember
the details of the incident.
C) After the phone company assigned you a new telephone number, you couldn’t remember your old number.
D) You keep calling your new boyfriend your old boyfriend’s name.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 250
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
100. Karla studied Spanish in high school. In college, the experience was very helpful when she took Italian. Now
she speaks Italian fluently, but can’t remember much Spanish. Karla is experiencing
A) motivated forgetting.
B) retroactive interference.
C) decay.
D) proactive interference.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 250
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
101. Interference tends to confuse the retrieval process in ____________ memory and to completely knock items out
of storage in ____________ memory.
A) long-term; short term
B) short-term; long term
C) both short and long term; long term
D) short term; short and long term
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 250
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
102. Reconstruction (schema) theory states that in long-term memory, we are likely to store
A) the gist, or general idea of the information.
B) the procedural details but not the semantic details.
C) only the episodic details.
D) information in vivid detail.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 250, 252
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
103. When you use the “gist” of the information to reconstruct a memory of a past event, you
A) remember the general meaning of the event and fill in the missing details.
B) search different memory stores to collect all the details of the event.
C) you match your mood state to the memory you are trying to recall.
D) you match your physical body state to the memory you are trying to recall.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 250, 252
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
104. You are trying to recall an important conversation you had with your boss three weeks ago. When you tell your
friend about the conversation, what will you most likely do about any parts of the conversation that are “missing”
from your memory?
A) You will reconstruct them based on your schema for the conversation.
B) You will simply not include them.
C) You will assume those parts never existed.
D) You will hope your friend does not figure you out.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 253
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
105. Which theory suggests that personal assumptions and expectations distort memories?
A) Decay theory
B) Reconstruction theory
C) Motivated Remembering theory
D) Control Gate theory
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 250
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
106. In support of schema theory, Carmichael and associates presented subjects with ambiguous drawings. Later,
they were asked to recall the drawings. The subject’s recall of the drawings was
A) significantly influenced by verbal labels telling them what the figures represented
B) significantly influenced by elaborative rehearsal
C) substantially improved if they used vivid imagery
D) substantially affected by proactive interference
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 251
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
107. When drawing ambiguous figures from memory, subjects will alter the drawings to fit labels that have been
assigned to the drawings. This observation lends support to
A) the spreading activation model of memory.
B) schema theory.
C) decay theory.
D) the levels of processing model of memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 251
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
108. Recent versions of schema theory relies on the expectation that
A) meaning is better represented than episodic details in long-term memory.
B) people are motivated to have some false memories.
C) distortion of memories occurs gradually over time.
D) memories are often unassociated from other memories.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 252
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
109. Imagine you are given the following list and asked to remember it: pencil, paper, ruler, eraser, and desk. When
asked if a second list contains any items that were not in the first list, which of the following items is MOST likely
to be incorrectly remembered as having been on the list?
A) fish
B) pants
C) pen
D) flower
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 252, 253
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
110. Remembering an event that did not occur or that occurred in a way that was different from the memory is
referred to as a
A) lie.
B) decayed memory.
C) false memory.
D) motivated forgotten memory.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 253
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
111. According to Freud, motivated forgetting typically results from
A) depression.
B) dealing with unpleasant or dangerous information.
C) laziness.
D) being overly excited.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 254
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
112. Of the following, which level of arousal is most likely to enhance memory?
A) severely negative
B) strongly positive
C) mildly negative
D) neutral
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 254
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
113. Victims of sexual molestation sometimes cannot remember having been violated. This observation supports
Freud’s idea of
A) proactive interference.
B) memory decay.
C) motivated forgetting.
D) retroactive interference.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 254
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
114. Salita and Josef are in a miserable relationship where each is extremely hurtful to the other. However, when
asked about their disagreements, each can only recall the hurtful things the other one did. Neither can recall hurtful
things they did. Their memory failures may an example of
A) memory decay.
B) motivated forgetting.
C) interference.
D) amnesia.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 254
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
115. The events of September 11, 2001 are likely to replace the assassination of President Kennedy as a more
current example of a
A) false memory.
B) declarative memory.
C) flashbulb memory.
D) flashback memory.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 254
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
116. When a memory of an extremely emotional event is recalled in rich detail, it is referred to as a
A) reconstructed memory.
B) proactive memory.
C) flashbulb memory.
D) semantic memory.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 254
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
117. When you remember the first time you had a major fall off your bike when you were a child, you are flooded
with images. You can recall the horrible pain, the other kids who saw it, the smell of the blood, even the details of
the fall itself. Of the following, your memory appears most like a
A) repressed memory.
B) flashbulb memory.
C) semantic memory.
D) procedural memory.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 254
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
118. Flashbulb memories are generally
A) procedural memories.
B) episodic memories.
C) semantic memories.
D) repressed memories.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 254
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
119. Which of the following is true of flashbulb memories?
A) They seem more accurate and vivid.
B) They are more accurate than memories of everyday events.
C) They are generally procedural memories.
D) They are stored complete and untainted directly from the sensory register into long-term memory.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 254
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
120. In Judith Kearins’ (1986) study of white Australian and aboriginal adolescents, what important contribution to
the field of memory research did she reach?
A) White Australian children had better visual memories, and aboriginal Australian children had better verbal
memories, demonstrating how much brighter white Australian children are.
B) White Australian children outperformed aboriginal Australian children on all memory tasks demonstrating how
much brighter white Australian children are.
C) Aboriginal Australian children were more likely than white Australian children were to memorize objects in
visual or spatial terms, demonstrating the role of cultural influences in memorization.
D) White Australian children approached memory tasks silently, slowly, and methodically, demonstrating lower
intellect than aboriginal Australian children did.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 254, 255
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
121. According to Judith Kearins, what accounts for the tendency for white Australian children to use verbal skills
and aboriginal Australian children to use visual skills in committing objects to memory?
A) intelligence
B) culture
C) education
D) memory limits
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 254, 255
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
122. An engram has been described by Karl Lashley and other neuroscientists as
A) a piece of information that interferes with the formation of a new memory.
B) a message sent from the brain to the spinal cord.
C) the memory trace in the brain that is the biological basis of memory.
D) the puzzle that is amnesia.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 256
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
123. According to Donald Hebb, the physical mechanism for the engram is located in the
A) axons of nerve cells
B) synapses between nerve cells
C) myelin sheaths of nerve cells
D) cell bodies of nerve cells
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 256
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
124. Which piece of evidence supports synaptic facilitation as the basis for memory?
A) Lesions to the hippocampus destroy long-term memory consolidation.
B) Injecting acetylcholine eliminates motivated forgetting.
C) Rats raised in enriched environments show increased brain volume.
D) Neurotransmitters accumulate in the synapse following classical conditioning.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 257
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
125. The gradual strengthening of chemical changes in synapses that follows learning is referred to as
A) myelination.
B) consolidation.
C) decay
D) encoding.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 257
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
126. Research on the brain’s role in memory has demonstrated that changes in the synapses are involved in
____________ memory, and that the brain structures involved in short-term memory and long-term memory are
____________.
A) short-term but not long-term; the same
B) long-term but not short-term; different
C) both short-term and long-term; the same
D) both short-term and long-term; different
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 257
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
127. Visual information is relayed from the sensory register in the ____________ to the ____________, where it can
be held in short-term memory.
A) cerebral cortex; frontal and parietal lobes
B) frontal and parietal lobes; cerebral cortex
C) hippocampus; cerebral cortex
D) cerebral cortex; hippocampus
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 257, 258
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
128. When using short-term memory, which of the following brain areas is active?
A) hippocampus
B) auditory cortex
C) frontal lobes
D) hypothalamus
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 257, 258
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
129. When we recall visual information from long-term memory, it is routed to the ________, where it is held in
working memory.
A) cerebral cortex
B) frontal and parietal lobes
C) hippocampus
D) thalamus
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 257, 258
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
130. Retrograde amnesia is a disorder that affects
A) short-term memory.
B) the formation of new long-term memories.
C) retrieval of long-term memories for some period of time.
D) procedural memories.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 258, 259
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
131. Loss of memories for events that occurred prior to a brain injury is called
A) Korsakoff’s syndrome.
B) retrograde amnesia.
C) repression.
D) anterograde amnesia.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 258, 259
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
132. An individual with retrograde amnesia would be LEAST likely to be able to remember which of the following?
A) the names of her childhood friends
B) how to ride a bike
C) a list of nonsense words 30 seconds after it is presented
D) a list of nonsense words 5 seconds after it is presented
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 258, 259
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
133. You suffered a head injury in a car accident. You can remember past events easily, but struggle with
remembering events that have occurred since the accident. You are experiencing
A) Korsakoff’s syndrome.
B) retrograde amnesia.
C) repression.
D) anterograde amnesia.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 258, 259
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
134. Anterograde amnesia is a disorder that affects
A) short-term memory.
B) the formation of new long-term memories.
C) retrieval of old long-term memories.
D) strictly procedural memories.
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 259
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
135. An individual with anterograde amnesia would NOT be able to remember which of the following?
A) the names of her childhood friends
B) how to ride a bike
C) a list of nonsense words 30 seconds after it is presented
D) a list of nonsense words 5 seconds after it is presented
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 259
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
136. Sometimes individuals with meningitis or encephalitis experience anterograde amnesia as a result of the
infection. What area of the brain was most likely damaged by the infection?
A) thalamus
B) hippocampus
C) cerebral cortex
D) hypothalamus
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 260
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
137. The ____________plays a key role in the transfer of information from short-term memory to long-term
memory.
A) hippocampus
B) temporal lobe
C) parietal lob
D) none of these
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 260
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
138. Chronic lack of thiamine leads to a combined state of retrograde and anterograde amnesia. This type of
memory loss is called
A) dissociative amnesia.
B) Alzheimer’s disease.
C) Korsakoff’s syndrome.
D) psychotic repression.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 260
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
139. Harrison is an alcoholic who has been diagnosed with Korsakoff’s syndrome. Harrison’s son has noticed that
his father seems to be making things up when he is communicating to others. What is Harrison demonstrating?
A) intentional deceit
B) sociopathy
C) confabulation
D) fabrication
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 260
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
140. According to research on eyewitness testimony, leading questions can
A) intimidate the witness.
B) confuse the witness.
C) increase the chance of reconstructive errors.
D) help jog the witness’s memory.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 262
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
141. Which of the following questions would be considered a “leading question”?
A) Did she hit the child?
B) How hard did she smack the child?
C) Can you describe what happened to the child?
D) Where did this incident occur?
Answer: B
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 262
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
142. In Loftus’ research, what was the impact of leading questions on accurate recall?
A) Leading questions lead to inaccurate recall in every subject.
B) Leading questions lead to a slight, but insignificant increase in inaccurate recall.
C) Leading questions significantly increased the number of false memories.
D) Leading questions did not appear to influence subjects to any degree of significance.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 262, 263
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
143. Leading questions appear to influence people to reconstruct their memory in a way that makes the details of the
memory more
A) interesting.
B) detailed.
C) consistent.
D) contradictory.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 262, 263
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
144. Which of the following may bias an eyewitness who is asked to find her attacker in a police line-up?
A) All of the individuals in the line-up are wearing similar clothing.
B) All of the individuals in the line-up are facing the same direction.
C) The witness is told that the suspect is in the line-up.
D) The witness is asked if she sees the person who attacked her.
Answer: C
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 263
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
145. In a 1970s study at California State University, researchers staged an incident in which a student attacked a
faculty member. Results demonstrated that, on average, the 141 student witnesses recalled ______ percent of the
details of the attack accurately.
A) 75
B) 65
C) 45
D) 25
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 264
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
146. When shown a fictional list of common African American and common European names, subjects tended to
“remember” more African American names as connected with criminality. This type of memory distortion is most
related to
A) reconstruction (schema) theory.
B) retroactive interference.
C) motivated forgetting.
D) repression.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 264, 265
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
147. What is the most current scientific view of repressed memories, especially with regard to physical and sexual
abuse?
A) Repressed memories are very common.
B) Repressed memories are psychologically impossible.
C) Psychologists play no role in the surfacing of repressed memories.
D) It is clear that inaccurate memories of traumatic childhood events are possible.
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 265, 266
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
148. Chuck is a 50-year-old man who recently came to the realization that he was sexually molested by his uncle
when he was 3 years old. We may need to be concerned that Chuck is experiencing
A) a false memory.
B) repression.
C) motivated forgetting.
D) a secret fantasy.
Answer: A
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Page: 265, 266
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
149. Some studies suggest that hypnotized individuals may accurately recall ____________ information and may
recall ____________ erroneous information.
A) less; less
B) less; more
C) more; less
D) more; more
Answer: D
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 267
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
True/False Questions
150. Before information can be stored in memory, it must be encoded.
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 235
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
151. Visual information can be retained in the sensory registers for about 4 seconds.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
152. In short-term memory, we generally use visual codes to store information.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
153. According to stage theory, information in long-term memory is stored in terms of meanings.
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 239
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
154. Short-term memory is primarily a function of the hippocampus.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
155. When you remember the capital cities of each of the United States, you are using procedural memory.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
156. An episodic memory is a memory for meaning, without reference to a time or place.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
157. Together, semantic memory and episodic memory make up declarative memory.
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 241
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
158. The spreading activation model proposes that we form links between concepts because of their evolutionary
significance.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 242
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
159. When testing recall, the recall method asks subjects to choose correct information from several alternatives.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 243
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
160. The most sensitive method for evaluating memory is the relearning method.
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 223
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
161. In the serial position effect, items at the beginning of the list are still being held in short-term memory but they
have been rapidly and efficiently organized.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 244
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
162. Linking new information to oneself is an excellent means to improve one’s ability to retrieve the information
later.
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 248
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
163. Decay theory is believed to apply to sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 248
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
164. When new memories interfere with the recall of old memories, proactive interference is occurring.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 249
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
165. Vivid memories for severely emotionally-arousing events are referred to as “flashbulb memories.”
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 254
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory).
166. Donald Hebb was the first researcher to coin the term “engram.”
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 256
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
167. Damage to the hippocampus spares both new and old procedural memories, but prevents the formation of new
long-term declarative memories.
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 260
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
168. Confabulation is characteristic of Korsakoff’s syndrome.
Answer: T
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 260
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
169. Telling eyewitnesses that the person who committed the crime is in the lineup will help with accurate recall.
Answer: F
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 268
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
170. In Atkinson and Shiffrin’s stage theory of memory, to transfer information from sensory memory to short-term
memory, one must ____________.
Answer: pay attention
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 235
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
171. Visual information is contained in the ____________ for one-quarter of a second.
Answer: sensory register
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 235
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
172. George Miller proposed that the number of items one can hold in short-term memory ______ plus or minus
two.
Answer: 7
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 237
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
173. The amount of information held in short-term memory can be expanded through the process of ____________.
Answer: chunking
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 238
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
174. Long-term memories are temporarily held in the hippocampus and are eventually transferred to the
____________ for permanent storage.
Answer: cerebral cortex
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
175. Your memory for how to get dressedis a ____________ memory.
Answer: procedural
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 240
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
176. Procedural memory can be best accessed through ____________.
Answer: performance
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 240
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
177. Collins and Loftus’ ____________ model is a memory model that seeks to explain how we link together
various concepts and their characteristics.
Answer: spreading activation
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 242
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
178. When you are asked to write an answer to an essay question, you are being tested with the ____________
method.
Answer: recall
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 243
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
179. The ____________ method of memory testing requires subjects to choose correct information from several
alternatives.
Answer: recognition
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 243
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
180. If provided a list of items and told to memorize them in order, you are most likely to forget those that appear
in/at the ____________ of the list.
Answer: middle
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 244
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
181. Rather than separate stages, the ____________ model states that the distinction between short-term memory
and long-term memory is simply a matter of degree.
Answer: levels of processing
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 245
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
182. In the study of memory, the levels of processing model proposed that differences are due to different levels of
processing during the ____________ process rather than differences being due to two distinct memory systems.
Answer: encoding
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 245
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
183. ____________ means creating associations between new memories and existing memories.
Answer: Elaboration
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 246
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
184. When you cannot recall your new phone number and keep giving out your old phone number, ____________
interference is occurring.
Answer: proactive
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 249
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
185. Information in long-term memory can become distorted because we tend to store only the ____________ of the
information.
Answer: gist (or general idea)
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 252
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
186. Donald Hebb called the biological basis of learning and memory ____________.
Answer: synaptic facilitation
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 256
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
187. The inability to retrieve long-term memories from some time ago is called ____________ amnesia.
Answer: retrograde
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 258, 259
Style: Factual
Topic: Memory
188. In chronic alcoholism, thiamine deficiency can lead to ____________.
Answer: Korsakoff’s syndrome
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Low
Page: 260
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
189. When asking eyewitnesses about their accounts of events, it is important not to ask them ____________
questions.
Answer: leading (or biased)
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Page: 262, 263, 267
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
Essay Questions
190. Describe what type (i.e., visual, auditory, olfactory, semantically, etc.) of information tends to be encoded in
short-term memory and in long-term memory. Give an example of evidence to support your description of each type
of memory.
Answer: (NOTE: Student examples will vary.) In short-term memory, we tend to encode information in auditory
codes. This observation is supported by the fact that mistakes made in the retrieval of information from short-term
memory are generally acoustic mistakes; for example, inserting the letter “z” instead of the letter “b” in a list of
letters. In addition, we tend to “acoustically” rehearse information in short-term memory in order to keep the
information active. In long-term memory, information is encoded for general meaning. By semantically encoding
information, we consolidate new information and look for ways to organize the information based on existing
information already in long-term memory stores. Evidence for this type of encoding is illustrated in the difficulties
we sometimes experience in long-term memory retrieval with false memories.
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
191. Describe how procedural, semantic, and episodic memories are all involved in playing a game of tennis or
another sport.
Answer: (NOTE: Student answers will vary.) In a game of tennis, procedural memory allows the player to use the
appropriate eye-hand coordination and the large muscle movements needed to negotiate the court. In addition, it
allows the player to negotiate the proper moves, to judge distance, and to judge speed. The player must also have an
ample supply of semantic memories to play the game. Semantic memories would include the rules of the game, the
way in which points are tabulated, what equipment is needed, etc. While playing the game, the player is likely to
recall episodic memories. These memories might include the specific details of a previous game, mistakes that were
made, the strategies used by the opponent, and the strategies used by the player to successfully defeat the opponent.
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Style: Applied
Topic: Memory
192. Describe the three ways of measuring the retrieval of information from long-term memory. Give an example of
each, and specify which way is the most sensitive measure and which is the least sensitive measure.
Answer: (NOTE: Student examples will vary.) The recall method is based on the ability to retrieve information from
long-term memory with few cues. For example, asking the question, “Who was your first grade teacher?” is
measuring retrieval with the recall method. This is the least sensitive method. The recognition method is based on
the ability to select the correct information from among the options provided. For example, multiple-choice
questions on an exam use the recognition method. This method is more sensitive than the recall method. The final
method is the relearning method, which is based on the time it takes a person to relearn forgotten material. If the
relearning takes less time than the original learning, then the information has been remembered. For example, an
English speaker who last read French words when he was in high school and believes he does not remember any
French may learn the language faster the second time around. This would demonstrate that he hadn’t entirely
forgotten it. This method is the most sensitive way to evaluate memory.
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
193. Summarize the research findings that support a biological basis for memory.
Answer: Karl Lashley proposed the first speculation that learning and memory cause alterations in the brain. Lashley
proposed that learning produces a “memory trace,” or engram, in the brain. Donald Hebb also supported the idea of
the memory trace and proposed that individual experiences create a unique pattern of neural activity that cause
structural changes in the synapses. These changes make firing more likely in the future. He referred to this as
synaptic facilitation. In studies of sea snails, Eric Kandel and his associates provided evidence that strongly
supported Hebb’s theory. After classical conditioning a gill response in the sea snail, Kandel noted that the amount
of neurotransmitter at the synapse increased.
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: High
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory
194. Compare and contrast anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia.
Answer: Anterograde amnesia is a disorder of memory characterized by an inability to store information from shortterm memory into long-term memory. The individual can remember information for the short time it is in short-term
memory, but as soon as it is not rehearsed, the individual loses it. Generally, the disorder does not affect the ability
to acquire procedural memories, but the individuals will not remember that they do know how to do something if
they learned it following the onset of their amnesia. Damage is centered in the hippocampus. Retrograde amnesia is
similar to anterograde amnesia in that short-term memory and long-term procedural memories are spared. In the case
of retrograde amnesia, however, there is a loss of the memories in long-term memory for some period of time. New
long-term memories can be formed.
Book: Lahey
Difficulty: Medium
Style: Conceptual
Topic: Memory